Why Are People Posting Fruit On Snapchat Stories? Here's What This Code Means

You may have noticed something peculiar popping up in your friends' Snapchat stories this holiday season — and I'm not talking about that weird baby Santa filter. If you've seen random cherry, pineapple, and banana emojis appear where you used to just see selfies of your friends wearing cartoon dog ears, you're probably wondering what does fruit on Snapchat stories mean? It's nothing sinister, but it is a little strange — people are posting different fruit to indicate their relationship status. Back in ~my~ day all it took was an “it’s complicated” relationship status update on Facebook to get people talking, but apparently today’s youths find more joy encrypting their messages with emojis they’d probably never use otherwise.

The Snapchat fruit "game" started shortly after Christmas, according to Wojdylo Social Media, and is done by girls who are looking to "confuse guys" (and the rest of the world) about whether or not they are single, dating someone, or currently not looking. The rules, it seems, are pretty simple: Reference the state of your love life using a specific "flavor." Single AF? Post "blueberry." In a relationship? Post a cherry. Lemons mean you want to be single, raspberries mean you can't commit, and pineapples mean it's complicated. Here's the full breakdown, according to Wojdylo:

Blueberry: Single

Pineapple: It's complicated

Raspberry: I don't want to commit

Apple: Engaged

Cherry: In a relationship

Banana: Married

Avocado: I'm the better half

Strawberry: Can't find Mr. Right

Lemon: I want to be single

Raisin: I want to get married to my partner

It's unclear who exactly started the Snapchat fruit game, but whoever it was, their plan is working — people are really freaking confused. There's even an entire Reddit thread dedicated to trying to figure out what each of the mysterious Snapchat fruit mean; Reddit user marimbruhh pointed puzzled decoders to this Imgur post, which shows a Snapchat post going viral telling girls to participate:

Personally, I've never known how to work fruit emojis into my everyday interactions, so thank you, teens, for teaching me this very important method of communication. But apparently this game doesn't stop at fruit. According to Reddit, it's also opened up to include animals too — pandas mean you're single, birds mean you like someone — now that more and more people are catching on to the meanings behind each fruit.

Of course, you could just say "I'm seeing someone" to make your relationship status known, but that seems so extra when you could just post a... fruit. For what it's worth, I'm a pineapple-raspberry hybrid who occasionally identifies as cherry, depending on what kind of mood you get me in. I guess this is more complicated than I thought after all.